Internet Explorer address bar gone berserk

[Sparq]

Ok....the other day I got some Norton warnings about malicious code it couldn't stop, while I was browsing in IE. I updated my virus definitions and ran a full system scan which revealed 7 items, 6 of which it could remove. I have also run Ad-Aware.

Here's the problem: IE is intermittently adding "http://%65%68%74%74%70%2e%63%63/?" to the beginning of typed addresses and the homepage bar. It shows up as "http://ehttp.cc/?www.google.ca" in the address bar, for example. Of course, this results in the standard "the page cannot be displayed" message.

Little help? Please don't just say "get Opera" or anything unless you really believe it is an issue specific to Internet Explorer. Any assistance is appreciated.

[MarkM]

A couple of options dependant on which OS you are using, rollback to before this was happening and/or download all the IE patches you can find. There have recently been some upgrades to IE that can cause some mismatched results but not the adding of characters, try and keep a note of where you were browsing and avoid websites with that server, they do tend to be on the same servers.
As a rule of thumb I do get some sites that I visit that want to reset my home page via a cookie, of course I don't allow this but I wish these so called home sites that people have made would stop putting this code into the webpage to do this all it does is stop people going to your site as word of your coding will spread. So don't go to them again.
The current Crimson Room thread has a link to a www whatever/motas game now although the game is ok it is a mask to an english website and often it will lock up when I try to close the window causing me to reconnect to IE, bad coding happens all across the net, think how many times you get the "done" message but it actually reads "done, but with errors on the page"...can you see any errors? normally you can't but badly written webpages can be responsible for a lot of problems. This could be what has actually happend to you, want to share what you were looking at or not? ;)

[Sparq]

If I remember correctly it was an extremely messy, poorly coded angelfire site. I'm now also having those script errors commonly seen in IE when I open Norton. At the moment it's only annoying. The scanner is also hanging right near the end of its scan, and the system restore screen won't fully load. Seems like too many problems to be a simple error...

[painTech]

virus

[dwab3000]

well theres not much i can help you with. if it doesnt let you re install windows then get new harddrive. i had almost the same prob and the brand new xp- pro disc wasnt being noticed. i had to get a new hard drive.

[Sparq]

Yes...the 1/7 that it can't remove, even with all virus definitions up to date. Bah.

Edit: I believe I'm dealing with Trojan.Bookmarker.F, but the registry entries it's supposed to create aren't there for me to remove.

[polorboy]

Make sure you have show all hidden files and folders turned on so that those regestry items are available for you to remove. Also, is it just IE or are other things acting up, like random letters appearing while using Word or something that uses text. If that is the case then someone is actually getting access to your computer while it is connected to the internet. Are you using Dial Up or DSL/Cable set up? If it is dial up make sure you are not connected to the internet when you run the virus scan and try to delete files. If it is cable unplug your comp and run the virus scan again and then delete the files. If none of that stuff works, back up all your important files that are not infected and you are probably going to have to reinstall windows to get rid of it but make sure to get rid of all partitions that you don't need. I had a case on my comp where a worm created its own partition and no matter how many times I reinstalled windows it was still infected until I ran a dos promt to format the hard drive and noticed an "extra" partition and then the problem stopped. Hope this helps.